PRETTY ST. JOHN'S WORT 73 



style immature, and it is curved inwards, with the papillar surfaces 

 turned outwards. The 5 inner stamens open before the other outer 

 5 have withered, but remain bent outwards. In the second stage the 

 inner stamens wither and shrivel, the style lengthens, becomes erect, 

 and spreads out, turning the papillar surfaces up and the curves of 

 the papillae outwards and downwards. In the third stage, insects, if not 

 too small, settle in the middle of the flowers, and thus are bound to 

 touch the pollen in young flowers to reach the nectaries, or the stig- 

 matic papillae in older ones. If insects do not visit the flower, the 

 stigmas in curving outward touch the anthers enveloped in pollen. 

 Volucella bombylans is a regular visitor. Whilst most plants have 

 complete flowers, in some the stamens are not properly developed. 



The seeds are dispersed by the plant itself, for the 6-valved cap- 

 sule, when ripe, opens and allows the seeds to fall first round the 

 parent plant, hence it is usually found growing in clumps like the 

 Greater Stitchwort. 



Grassy Stitchwort is a sand-loving plant and requires a sand soil, 

 or barren ground such as that derived from granitic rocks or sandy 

 formations. 



The plant is infested by the fungi Melampsora ccrastii and Ustilago 

 violacea, and it is galled by Brachycolus stellaria. 



The second Latin name refers to the grass-like habit of the plant. 

 Its only other English name is Starwort. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



56. Stellaria graminea, L. Stem quadrangular, smooth, leaves 

 sessile, narrow, edged with cilia, flowers small, white, petals deeply 

 cleft, as long as the sepals, in forked panicles, bracts ciliate, rough. 



Pretty St. John's Wort (Hypericum pulchrum, L.) 



This plant is not found in seed-bearing beds. It is a plant of the 

 Northern Temperate Zone, found in Arctic Europe, eastwards to 

 Lithuania and Turkey. In Great Britain it is generally common, but 

 does not occur in Hunts, Radnor, Montgomery, Merioneth, Peebles, 

 Selkirk, Stirling, Mull, or West Ross, and ascends to a height 

 of 2 200 ft. in the Highlands. 



The Pretty St. John's Wort, a plant not belying its name, is an 

 ericetal species, which is found on high ground in copses and along 

 hedges, where the soil is more or less dry, for it is practically xero- 

 philous. But another and more typical habitat is heathland or common- 

 land, where it grows in company with Grassy Stitchwort, Sheep's Bit 



